Forrest Pritchard

Combining nearly five decades of experience from two of America’s pioneering sustainable farmers, Start Your Farm is the perfect introduction to the ever-growing ranks of people who dream of starting their own successful operation. Written in straightforward yet engaging language, rich with anecdotes, practical examples, and sprinkled throughout with rural humor, Start Your Farm is a must-read primer and practical business guide for any aspiring farmer, regardless of enterprise. The book offers essential step-by-step advice, as well as useful charts and diagrams. From vegetables to livestock, from small-scale plots to large acreages, from West Coast to East, authors Polishuk and Pritchard have not only lived the farming dream, they have succeeded at it. Now, new farmers can benefit from their wealth of experience, finding valuable information specifically organized and tailored for them. Broad in scope but thorough in detail, Start Your Farm is a book that can be read straight through, cherry-picked for individual chapters, and kept as a handy ongoing reference.

When Forrest Pritchard went looking for the unsung heroes of local, sustainable food, he found them at 18 exceptional farms all over the country. In Detroit, Aba Ifeoma of D-Town Farm dreams of replenishing the local “food desert” with organic produce. On Cape Cod, Nick Muto stays afloat and eco-friendly by fishing with the seasons. And in Washington State, fourth-generation farmer Robert Hayton confides, “This farm has been rescued by big harvests. . . . For every one great season, though, you’ve got ten years of tough.” With more than 50 mouthwatering recipes and over 250 photographs, this unique cookbook captures the struggles and triumphs of the visionary farmers who are Growing Tomorrow.

One fateful day in 1996, upon discovering that five freight cars' worth of glittering corn have reaped a tiny profit of $18.16, young Forrest Pritchard undertakes to save his family's farm. What ensues-through hilarious encounters with all manner of livestock and colorful local characters-is a crash course in sustainable agriculture. Pritchard's biggest ally is his renegade father, who initially questions his career choice and eschews organic foods for sugary mainstream fare; but just when the farm starts to turn heads at local markets, his father's health takes a turn for the worse. With poetry and humor, this timely memoir tugs on the heartstrings and feeds the soul long after the last page is turned.